No I did not die

we just moved

The move went very very well. We are about 97% unpacked with some few stubborn boxes here and there. This is starting to feel like home now and both of us, as you can see, the kittehs are quite happy here:

Our kittehs look out their front screen door

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what else I want this blog to be other than a digital scrapbook of all my finished objects. My life is so much more than that. I might hesitate writing about events in my life because they might involve people that do not want to be talked about online. I can’t say I blame them. Or perhaps maybe I think too much – Do people really care about a book I just read and absolutely loved? But this is for me first and foremost. I have readers, many of which know me in real life, some do not. If they don’t care about a particular topic, it is totally within their right to move on to the next blog listed in their Google Reader account.

[which reminds me...I have to work on my confidence in writing book reviews! I have read some really fantastic books lately too!]

ANYWAY!

This is a knitting blog and in my attempts to improve my writing in my professional life, perhaps this can help me share my thoughts on knitting and all the things that come with it.

My knitting buddy Carol mentioned this in a blog post a few months ago:

I did a blog post a little while back about some of the similarities I noticed between the quilting blog world and the knitting blog world. One thing I’ve seen on a lot of quilting blogs lately is a “Process Pledge.” The Process Pledge is a vow to not just “show finishes or occasionally confess about our moments of indecision, but chat openly and often about our works in progress, our inspirations, and our moments of decision,” to quote one blogger.

She went on to talk about writing a knitting book but it got me thinking about the knitting process. I know of various times in this blog where I have some hesitations about writing about Works In Progress Entries. It just comes to this: They’re not as fun. Let’s face it. What if you post a picture of a work in progress and four inches have been completed. Next week rolls around and you have done a whopping additional 2.5 inches to it. Wow. Not all that exciting.

But there are decisions you make as you knit something that would be interesting for your fellow knitters to know. I always appreciate a good heads up about charts or yarns for example. I like reading friends’ reviews of books. So why not add my own?

So I start now, in this new chapter of my blog, showing off my Featherweight Cardigan project.

At first, I’ve been so hesitant about such a pattern. There are thousands of projects on Ravelry and I noticed that a lot of them are sheer. And if that’s what people want, then FINE! More power to them. But from my point of view, I questioned the point of a cardigan so thin. My friend Darsana, who has made four, I’m pleased to note, mentioned that there are times in her office when it feels like a meat locker indoors. It’s not the time for a heavy sweater because it’s often summertime with ACs jacked up so high. I started thinking that and I said to myself, “Yuuuuup….I can see myself needing a few summer sweaters for those times.” She modified the pattern, too, to add more shaping to it. As you can see, many, have found these mods helpful.

One can’t take bulky yarn and knit this pattern. At the same time, I wanted to see more finished ones with fingering weight yarns as opposed to the laceweight it calls for. My friend Cam recently finished one that I just fell in love with! Let’s take a moment and gawk at her lovely cardi, shall we??

Sure, she used fingering weight yarn but you can’t see through the cardi. It fits her wonderfully and I particularly like the ribbing collar. It gives it a very nice border. She added length to the torso, which is something I’m probably going to have to do as well. All in all, a very well tailored cardi. Ms. Cam can probably wear this to the office if it gets too cold with the AC or she can wear it hanging out with her man on the weekends.

Ok I’m starting to sound like one of those announcers on a makeover show when they start talking about the clothes they picked out for the person.

So I started knitting one with Dream in Color Smooshy. This pattern can sometimes turn into a bore because it’s, for the most part, straight stockinette. But I am particularly interested in how the yarn I picked changes every so slightly:

This is just the swatch I made a few weeks ago but it still kept my interest. This is the progress so far:

The specs of purple, lighter blues and even some hints of green if you look close enough just make me giddy!

I plan on making this with Darsana’s modifications too and adding length to the torso. Haven’t made a decision about whether I want full sleeves, like I usually do, or go for more snug and more fuller and longer ones. I usually go for longer sleeves but perhaps 3/4 length ones will allow it to look more professional and tailored? I don’t know. (I’m on this professional self-improvement stint as you can probably tell. I want to write better and look better and perhaps….maybe…feel more confident? I digress though)

Up next will be a finished test knitting cowl I did for my buddy, PAKnitWit!

3 Comments

I also would like to knit Featherweight (or maybe her other sweater, Whisper maybe it’s called?) in sock weight yarn. I’m eager to see how yours turns out.

And you should totally write book reviews. Really. Many of us like books. We like you. We might not always like what you’re reading, but we like to hear because your endorsement is worth more than those of people we don’t know.

Interesting thoughts on blogging! I like that idea and I think I try to do that without being totally boring with progress posts.

You know… just this morning I was thinking about a fingering weight Featherweight cardigan! I have some lovely dark orange yarn (Fiberphile MCN) I bought at the Spring Fling I’m thinking will make a lovely version of one. I’m also not too much of a fan of the sheerness of the original or lace weight versions.